Tag Archives: feilte14

Matt Cooper is an Irish journalist, author, television presenter and radio presenter of The Last Word on Today FM. He is a former editor of the Sunday Tribune, as well as a former business editor of the Irish Independent. The author of two books ‘Who Really Runs Ireland?’ (2010) and ‘How Ireland Really Went Bust’ (2011), Cooper has thoroughly examined Irish businessmen and politicians.

In our interview Matt shared his motivation for being at Feilte as well as his thoughts on the education system in Ireland. As a father of five children in primary and secondary education he is involved in both the Parent Teacher Association and the Board of Management in his children’s primary school. He shared his thoughts on technology in education among other things.

One of the panel discussions at Féilte was on the topic of ‘Keeping the fires alive’ involving Marie Thérése Kilmartin, Beth Cooney and Anne White. Marie Thérése is principal of the Presentation Secondary Secondary School in Clondalkin, Beth is a French and History teacher in St Mary’s Secondary School in Nenagh and Anne is a primary teacher in Malahide. During our chat Marie Thérése, Beth and Anne shared their ideas on how they achieve this and their thoughts on Féilte.

This morning Eoin and Finn interviewed RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy. He talked to us about his schools days. Even though he wasn’t an ‘A’ grade student he still enjoyed school as a whole. In his keynote he talked about how teachers went off the beaten track to engage the class and capture their imaginations.

We also posed the question “if half the books I read are on kindle does that make me less of a reader?”, Ryan went on to explain his love for hard print literature and that the use of technology should be limited and balanced. He is a firm believer in people reading physical books. He also mentioned his dislike of social media describing it as “non-social media”.

Having been appointed as Minister for Education in July of this year, Jan O’Sullivan has so far experienced three months in her new position, only one of which has been during the academic term.
She took a Higher Diploma in Education at University College Cork, and she briefly worked as a secondary school teacher after this. She later emigrated to Canada, where she studied as a pre-school teacher. Between these experiences and her role as the Minister for Education, Minister O’Sullivan is the ideal person to interview at Feilte, a Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence.

Amongst the questions we asked Minister O’Sullivan were what she feels is the most rewarding part of being a Minister, what she thinks are the most important skills we should learn in school as well as what part does she see technology playing in education in the future.

Caitlin and Finn interviewed Conor Cusack who’s here at #Feilte today to talk about mental wellbeing. Conor was an intercounty hurler for Cork and is still pursuing his club career with Cloyne. Throughout his life Conor has battled with depression and spoke to us today about how being surrounded by teammates doesnn’t insulate you from feeling isolated and alone. Conor has openly spoken about his battles with depression. He did this via his blog : Depression is a friend not my enemy. This is an inspirational and empowering piece.

Bressie was at #FEILTE to talk on a panel about mental wellbeing, along with former Cork county hurler Conor Cusack, Presenter and ambassador for Pieta House Eoghan McDermott, Psychologist and Clinical Director of AWARE Dr. Clare Hayes, and Teacher and facilitator with ChilloutIreland AnnMarie Ireland.
Matt Cooper chaired the panel.

Bressie is a music star, an accomplished sportsman and a judge on the Voice of Ireland. He is outspoken on the topic of mental health issues and is an ambassador for Cycle Against Suicide, an organisation that seeks to raise awareness and bring support to those dealing with mental health issues.

We chatted to him about various topics in the areas mental well being, technology and his teenage years. He shared his own very personal experiences of dealing with panic attacks and insomnia as a teen and his regret that he waited so long to confide in his family. He feels that technology can be part of the solution as well as part of the problem and thinks that this is an area that should be investigated.

One of his parting shots in our chat was the importance of following your passions. He doesn’t believe that parents have a right to direct their children away from their passions, for example telling them that they have no future in music!

Eoghan McDermott is an Irish television and radio presenter mostly known for hosting The Voice of Ireland. We caught up with him at Féilte.

In the interview, Eoghan jokes that he has come to the conference because “he was paid loads of money and is in debt to a vicious money lender” before going on to talk about how his parents were teachers and how there were “always teaching conversations going on in the house throughout the years.”

McDermott goes on to talk about how when he spoke out about his mental well-being. He said that the overwhelming reaction from young people was saying thank you for speaking out, because it’s hard.